Serpent Quen
by bloodmemories
Summary: When Jughead leaves with Archie, the serpents rescue Betty from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and make her the Serpent Queen.


Serpent Queen

Jughead and FP had just fought their way through the underground tunnels to get back into riverdale during the quarantine. They emerged from the tunnels covered in mud and wet. JUghead turned to his dad.

"I have to go talk to Betty."

"Boy, you might not find her. I haven't seen her around for awhile, Alice said something about them going to stay at the farm." FP said tentatively.

"What! Betty would never go to the farm." Jughead said while shaking his head, his eyes started to crinkly in worry.

"Well, lets go to the Cooper house and check." FP said.

They had to leave their bikes on the other side of the quarantine, they wouldn't fit in the tunnels. They started walking towards the northsde to the Cooper house. When they saw someone leaning against a bike facing the closed southside high wearing a serpent jacket.

"Hey!" Judged yelled to him.

The guy turned, it was a lower level serpent that Jughead hadn't really gotten to know.

"Oh Jones your back." the serpent Johnny said.

"Yeha Johnny, I need to borrow your bike, I need to get to the cooper house." Jughead said as he started to reach for the handles of the bike.

"Sorry Jones, the serpent's no longer answer to you" Johnny said as he crossed his arms while staring they down.

"What!?" Both Judhead and FP said at the same time.

"The serpents don't answer to you anymore, we follow the Queen now." johnny told them calmly.

"The Queen? How did this happen, i havent been gone for long" Judhead said in confusion.

"Long enough." Johnny said.

"Who's is queen and have you seen Betty?" Jughead demanded.

"They're one In the same."

"What?" Jughead asked confused, Johnny couldn't possibly mean what he thinks he does.

"Betty Cooper is the serpent queen." Johnny said with a smirk.

The world froze, all the blood rushes to Jugheads mind, the sound of his heartbeat was all he could hear. 'Betty is the serpent queen'.

—-

Johnny led them to La Bonne nuit. It looked the same as when Jughead was there with Betty for the grand opening. The only glaring difference was that instead of Veronicas portrait bring hung on the wall, there was a photograph of a serpent couple with their jackets proudly displayed while the man is holding the woman to him, their faces were cropped out.

The second difference Jughead noticed was that all the serpents were there, sitting at tables and the bar, just hanging out, in a calm way that was unusual for them. They all turned and looked at them as they entered, whispered started, he could hear little snippets. "Is that jones? He's back? What's the queen gonna do?"

Jughead saw Toni and sweet pea get up from a table in the middle, they looked the same as the last time Jughead saw them. They walked up to him with scowls on their faces.

"Your back Jones? Nice of you to join us." Toni said sarcastically while she frowned at Jughead.

"Finally the king returns to the people that he abandoned." Sweet pea snarled at Jughead as he shook in anger.

"I-"

"Save it for the queen." Sweet pea snapped at Jughead.

The sound of heels clicking on the floor, was hired as the serpents began to move out of the way as Jughead assumes Betty started walking toward them.

Toni and Sweet Pea moved over and then Jughead saw her, Betty was still so beautiful and so different from what he last saw. She was wearing knee high black heeled boots, dark blue jeans, a pink graphic t shirt and a serpent leather jacket. Her hair was down from her regular ponytail and she was wearing a bright red lipstick.

"Forsythe Pendalton Jones the third, you've returned home again." Betty said while she looked at him with the soft look in her eyes that was reserved for him. Jughead tok a step forward, Betty raised her hand to stop him from coming forward.

"Don't worry, I know and understand where you were and why you left. I'm not mad, the serpents however feel differently." Betty said calmly, so calmly that Jughead wasn't sure he believed that she wasn't mad at him.

"The serpents? I get that I felt them high and dry but to replace me?" Jughead asked confused.

"That's only my part of it. You broke serpent law." Betty said still scarcely calm.

"Broke? No, how could I have broken serpent law?" Jughead demanded.

"When you have Archie the serpent tattoo, you made him a serpent. What is the second law?" Betty asked the group.

"NO SERPENT STANDS ALONE!" All the serpents shouted in return.

"When you made Archie a serpent, you made him a part of our family and under our protection. Then when he needed protection, you took him away. You deemed the serpents not enough to protect Archie. What's the seventh law?" Betty asked.

"IN UNITY THERE IS STRENGTH" the serpent shouted back at the same time that Jughead and FP ask "seventh rule?"

"Yes, I changed the laws." Betty said matter of factly.

"You changed the laws?" FP demanded outraged.

Betty shrugged "Am I not the queen?"

"You and Archie Andrews fled riverdale alone instead Of leaning on us. Proving once and for all that your Loyalty lies with the Northside." Jughead gaped at her when she finished speaking. He hadn't thought of it like that at all.

"The serpents have found you guilty. Do you want to face punishment or are you turning in your jacket?" Betty said him very seriously while he continued to stare at her in open mouthed shock.

"I- I don't want to lose my family or you Betty." Jughead said softly, fearful of losing all that he found, all that had finally given a place he belong and someone that believed in him.

"Then you will accept and endure any punishment issued to you?" Betty said him with complete seriousness.

"Yes, I will follow any punishment you give me." Jughead said with no hesitation. FP watched with trepidation on his face.

"Alright. In our initiation you ran a gauntlet. Could you survive another one?" Betty mused as she looked around at all the gathered serpents.

"It'll be a little different this time. The goal is not to keep getting up but to make it to the end of the line to me, while eight serpents are taking hits at you as you walk. You may choose the eight serpent to be apart of your goulet. If they refuse it are no longer with us, the choice is mine. This is your only mercy Jughead Jones." Betty told him, as she looked at him dead in the face.

"I accept." Jughead said no hesitation.

"Good, make your choices."

"Sweet Pea." Jughead said as his first choice. Sweet pea stepped forward.

"Fangs Fogarty." Jighead said.

"Fangs is no longer with us." Betty told him as soon as Jughead spoke. She ignores the shock on his face.

"Toni Topaz." Betty said as Toni stepped forward.

"Joaquin Desantos." Jughead said as Joaquin stepped forward.

"Mustang." Jughead said as mustang stepped forward.

"Cheryl Blossom." Jughead said as Cheryl stepped forward with a smirk on her red lips.

"Riley" Jughead said as Riley stepped forward.

"Dowg" Jughead said as Dowg stepped forward.

"Miles" Jughead said. Miles did not step forward.

Betty tilted her head to the right and said "Mad dog." Mad dog stepped forward, Jughead remembered him as one of the guys that Archie had gotten out of juviel, he hadn't known he was a serpent.

"Your gauntlet is chosen. It will begin at sundown, where sunnyside trailer park used to stand." Betty decreed.

—

Jughead and FP walked calmly into the remains of Sunnyside trailer park, where they saw all the serpents were gathered with Betty talking to Toni at the front of the group. It looked like they were arguing.

"Betty I'm ready but i have one question." jughead said as he approached the group.

"What's your question?"

"What are the new laws? I can't live by them if I don't know them." Jughead asked.

Betty smiled at him. "Shall we tell them?" She asked the group behind her.

As one they started to recite the laws. "A serpent is never cruel or cowardly, No serpent stands alone, If a serpent is killed or imprisoned, their family will be taken care of, No serpent is left for dead, A serpent never betrays his own, A serpent never sheds its skin, In unity there is strength, Blood must have blood, Get knocked down, get back up, If you can breathe, you can stand, if you can stand, you can fight, The dead are gone, the living are hungry." Jughead was shocked on how simple the difference was but how much of an impact those changes made.

"And can I ask how you became the queen?" Jughead asked nervously, he figured the story wasn't very pleasant and the thought of it made him feel even guilter than he had before.

Betty looked away from him, an uncomfortable silence lasts for a few seconds.

"Tell him." Toni said as she frown at jughead.

Betty sighed as she looked from Toni to Jughead, she sighed again a deep sigh that moved her whole body.

"Jughead, I don't blame you." Betty started to say when Toni interrupted her.

"You should."

Jughead looked between confused with a growing sense of guilt and fear at what he was about to hear.

"I guess, it was the night you left before you tried to call me the first time. Someone had broken into my house and left Diltons gravestone on my bed, the gargoyle king or who every is pretending to him was in my living room waiting for me and my mom. We ran out of the house, it was all gone the next day but it really scared my mom. She said the house wasn't safe anymore and that she was going to the farm. Then she said she knows I won't go there, so she had three orders come to the house and drag me away kicking and screaming to the sisters of quiet mercy." Betty said as she looked at the ground, unwilling to look at Jughead as she said this.

"No one noticed, well you and archie were gone and veronica noticed but she actually believed that I had gone to the farm with my mom." Betty looked around at the serpents in the room with a smile on her face.

"The serpents noticed. Toni and Sweet pea thought it was odd that I would go to the farm. They confronted my mom but she won't tell then anything. They asked the neighbors if they had seen anything that's how they figured out the sisters had taken me. Sweet Pea gathered all the serpents and they broke me out of the sisters." Toni and sweet pea looked over at Betty with a smile.

"That's how we all got close, with you gone the serpent's head no leader. So I stepped up to lead them. Now, the past is over. It's time to face your punishment Jughead." Betty told jughead.

The eight serpents that were chosen made two lines of four, with enough space for jughead to walk through but with enough room for all of them to reach him. Jughead took his place at the beginning of the lines, ready to walk through. Betty surprised him by standing at the end of the line, as if waiting for him.

"Begin." Betty said as she started right at him.

Jughead stepped forward in between Toni and Sweet Pea. Sweet pea punched him in the face, toni punched him in the stomach, he didn't fall. Joaquin and Mustang then punished him in the stomach as well. Cheryl scratched him in the face, she broke skin, blood was now running down his face. Riley kneed im in the stomach, jughead thought he could feel an internal blood coming. Dowg and Mad dog punched him in the face and stomach at the same time. Jughead fell to his knees in pain, he breath really hard for a second and spit out some blood from his mouth. Jughead looked up at Betty as he slowly stood up.

Betty smirked at him as she slowly moved the zipper of her jacket down, as it lowered he saw a necklace chain with a small crown on it and a tag that said jughead. Jughead looked at the necklace and then back up at Betty. He walked over to her and out of the gauntlet line.

"Congratulations Jug, you get to stay a serpent." Betty said as she grabbed his face and kissed him passionately.


End file.
